Hillsong London

Although it sprang from the evangelical loins of Australia’s Hillsong Church, known for famed worship leader Darlene Zschech (”Shout to the Lord”), Hillsong London’s praise team is not your momma’s church band, and that’s a good thing. While Zschech is responsible for some of the most spectacular praise music of her generation, Hillsong London’s sprockety, oddball, synthetic sound is certain to appeal to a wide swath of an unchurched generation; Hail to the King is a refreshingly hip congregational album.

This is Hillsong London’s usual, anything-but-usual Sunday music - it’s no wonder this church has grown from 200 to over 6,000 in the span of ten years. Unlike their previous albums, Hail to the King is being released as both a live DVD (available in 2009) and this studio CD. In an interview for Worship Musician magazine, worship leader Peter Wilson notes that recording in a studio allows them to “be a bit more explorative,” enabling them to inject more difficult time signatures and arrangements because “people can’t clap to that or jump” to anything complex in a live worship situation.

Nevertheless, Hail to the King has the kind of tuneful melodies and riffs that connect with the ear after only a few listens. The album’s structure is a reverse bell curve, beginning and ending with high energy songs while slowing to deep waters in the middle. Instrumentally speaking, the upbeat tracks are dominated by screamin’, slurpin’ and burpin’ guitars, layers and layers of wildly varied tones, like a Line6 guitar pod gone wild.

On “I’m Not Ashamed,” the lead guitar threads itself like bullets around the melody, sounding like a theme for a James Bond movie. (A good Bond theme, not that Quantum of Solace limp biscuit.) Another great moment occurs in “Hail to the King,” when the guitarist leaps off the rail of the gutsy riff and, what’s this? There’s an instrumental reprise and some Jerry Lee Lewis-style piano pounding and the lead guitar is squawking out a familiar tune … why that’s … that’s “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot!” So unexpected and so thematically correct and so very brilliant.

Placed back to back, piano takes center stage on the tuneful “You Brought Me Home” and “You Are Here,” both of which begin as harmonic ballads before building to a slow boil. The latter song’s urgent, insistent bridge springs from the revelation that God’s spirit dwells within us: “The same power that conquered the grave lives in me, lives in me” (”You Are Here”).

As in a carefully orchestrated live worship situation, these tracks are carefully placed in an order that presents an unobstructed flow. The instrumental, “Selah,” next to last among the slower tracks of the album, provides a pause that allows the listener to reflect on God. Towards the end of the song, single notes climb a staircase of octaves up to the sky, up to the heavens, up to His perfect throne, then simply fade away to gentle church organ.

Peter Wilson’s voice is perfectly complemented by a female singer whose voice is light, whispery, imperfect and infinitely modern. When she sings to a backdrop of acoustic fingerpicking, strings and piano, the result is astonishingly simple and effective. “The Lord my light and my salvation / In whom then shall I be afraid? / I’ll never be the same again / In You I find peace again / I look to the cross / Lord let me see Your love anew” (”Look to the Cross”).

This is what church music would sound like if great artists weren’t siphoned off into secular purgatory. Hillsong London represents the cutting edge of mainstream congregational praise - music that’s tuneful enough for churchgoers over 40, and yet eclectic enough for the ipod generation. Every worship leader hoping to reach people under 30 should pick up a copy of Hail to the King.

Tagged as: Hail to the King, Hillsong London

↓ 2 comments

#1 grace on December 8th, 2008 at 9:45 pm

Great review, Cindy! (and love your bio…it made me laugh
Solid writing, and i need this album! i love hillsong. im so excited they will be at GMA’s this year.

#2 Cristiane on December 10th, 2008 at 1:19 pm

Beautigul review. This album is just fantastic, it’s not the kind you need to listen many times to like. I’m proudly part of Hillsong and so happy the guys recorded such a blessing. Gio Galanti and Peter Wilson are great.

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